Ugh. I am going to represent my workplace as a vendor at a wedding fair, and they just sent me results from a survey that they give all registered attendees. 37% of brides are looking for weight-loss tips at the fair. what the fizzle and also WHY THE fork do they ask that question? I know the answer but it's really depressing.

Cushioned and warm! My bits are at the height of comfort! Seriously though, I shaved my stuff for most of my life because the guys I dated preferred it and I just didn't really care (and didn't give it much thought, generally). The first night my guy and I slept together, I apologized for being a little spiky in the genital area and he was like, 'Hey, I don't care, and do what you want because it's your body, but...I know you're not 12 years old and I think bushes are sexy and womanly' and it was the biggest relief. Haven't shaved since, loving my bushy bits.

_________________But if one were to tickle Pluto, I suspect that it might very quietly laugh. - pandacookie

55k usd is like 4 cad or whatever equivalent in beavers you use on the island - joshua

i am so kind of surprised to hear this. is this pubic deforestation a generational thing? i never even thought of shaving or whatever for most of my adult life. maybe i just never paid attention. i guess in college when i should have been forming my genital habits, i was spending all my time with wild artists, hippies, and engineers, and pubic styles weren't really on any of our radar. ETA: but to actually say something out loud criticizing that? ridonkulous. It's akin to shaming people with bangs or something equally twitty.

I am intrigued that people sit around and talk about how gross pubic hair is. Next time tell them to stop being tools of the patriarchy who make women feel shame about their bodies. When they call you a man hating feminist hop up on the bar/table/chair/gazebo and sing Hair at the top of your lungs with a final cry of "Pube Strong". Sit and say that you've now taken care of your shiitake.

Shining streaming gleaming flaxen waxen

I like the way you think.

I haven't gotten to the singing-on-the-table part but I have (many, many, many times) gotten to the "stare blankly at you" phase. That's my favourite.

Shining streaming gleaming flaxen unwaxen!

I've never had such a conversation, and I'm trying to wrap my mind around anyone 1. imagining that other people's pubic hair is any of their business, and 2. talking about it in a public (pubelic?), social setting. I seem to recall that once upon a time there was a euphemism...something about "private parts"? Whatever people want to do with their own bodies is their own damn business.

I shaved my legs and pits (and nothing else) for about a year when I was a teenager, at which point I decided it was complete rubbish and stopped; I met the very few comments I received from undergrad male peers with, "Why don't you shave your legs?" but I can honestly say that since I was about 20 no adult acquaintance has ever made unsolicited mention of it (much less the state of affairs within my pantaloons), and it would strike me as incredibly rude if they did. Maybe I'm just lucky enough to know people with basic manners and rudimentary social skills?

A lot of men, especially, discuss it. Most women I know don't give a rat's asparagus either way, but holy hell, there are some men I know that have very strong opinions on pubic hair. Most of them who think women should be shaved as crassholes in other arenas, though.

I remember a moment in eighth grade when I first learned that pubic hair could be shaved. I was with one other female friend and four male friends, and the boys decided to talk about this hook up one of them had...'and the girl didn't shave down there.' They spoke as if hair was the nastiest thing ever and it was totally weird of this girl to not shave. Being thirteen, I had no idea whether this was true or not, and my friend wasn't much help because she squealed and went, "Eww!" immediately to fit in 'with the boys.'I was like, "So, huh. Do boys just, like, not have pubic hair? Do they shave theirs? Why do we have to?"

eta: OK, a lot of young men (teens and twentysomethings) discuss it. I think/hope it fizzles as you age.

If it were up to my husband, he'd take all my razors away, he doesn't care for leg shaving (or arm shaving which I do) either. I think it is a generational thing because you never heard other girls talk about it (or guys) when I was in college or what not. I stopped shaving my arm pit hair a few years ago but I shave it or trim it once in a while because it bothers me and sometimes when I'm wearing pants a lot, my leg hairs bother me due to the rubbing. I don't know. I am such a sporadic shaver of things I do shave, I'm not about to shave my pubic hair.

_________________You are all a disgrace to vegans. Go f*ck yourselves, especially linanil.

If it were up to my husband, he'd take all my razors away, he doesn't care for leg shaving (or arm shaving which I do) either. I think it is a generational thing because you never heard other girls talk about it (or guys) when I was in college or what not. I stopped shaving my arm pit hair a few years ago but I shave it or trim it once in a while because it bothers me and sometimes when I'm wearing pants a lot, my leg hairs bother me due to the rubbing. I don't know. I am such a sporadic shaver of things I do shave, I'm not about to shave my pubic hair.

I just think people should do (or not do) what they want because they do or don't want to, not because of artificially constructed (and for the most part commercially motivated) pressures to look a certain way. Personally, I'm not interested in enduring various forms of discomfort - whether shaving or waxing or whatever - to make my genitalia look like a prepubescent child's, and frankly I'd think it was icky if my partner wanted me to, but that's me. If someone else wants to remove their pubic hair for their own reasons, that's their business, but being afraid men will find them "gross" is about the worst reason I can imagine. It's enormously troubling that girls as young as thirteen are absorbing the idea that the most private parts of their bodies, which no one will (or should) see for years must be made "ready" for the public gaze. The fact that this is to be done by conforming to standards rooted in the objectifying and often exploitative tropes of pornography made by (and primarily aimed at) men only makes it worse. F*ck that sh*t.

Yeah exactly. Shave if you like but hair is not gross. Speaking of which.. not pubic hair but I saw this through CQ's FB feed this morning, artist makes Frida Kahlo "pretty". It is pretty horrific. Lightened her skin, trimmed her eyebrows and removed facial hair.http://www.buzzfeed.com/kmallikarjuna/a ... rida-kahlo

Yeah exactly. Shave if you like but hair is not gross. Speaking of which.. not pubic hair but I saw this through CQ's FB feed this morning, artist makes Frida Kahlo "pretty". It is pretty horrific. Lightened her skin, trimmed her eyebrows and removed facial hair.http://www.buzzfeed.com/kmallikarjuna/a ... rida-kahlo

The fact that Frida never indicated a wish to be "whisked off to Beauty Works or the like" is irrelevant, since obviously neither she nor her "girlfriends" knew what was best for her. And maybe now she'll have a shot at getting a date for the prom! Thanks, colonialist value system!

_________________"If I were M. de la Viandeviande, I would now write a thirteen page post about how you have to have free will to be vegan, but modern science does not suggest any evidence for free will, therefore it is impossible to be vegan." -mumbles

Lard knows I hope so, but in a world filled with skin-lightening creams ("too dark"), tanning parlors ("too pale"), and waxing salons (eeewwww: body hair!), can we ever be sure? One thing's for certain: we can apparently never be "just right."

Lard knows I hope so, but in a world filled with skin-lightening creams ("too dark"), tanning parlors ("too pale"), and waxing salons (eeewwww: body hair!), can we ever be sure? One thing's for certain: we can apparently never be "just right."

true, but the way I read it that was the point of the piece.

_________________"If I were M. de la Viandeviande, I would now write a thirteen page post about how you have to have free will to be vegan, but modern science does not suggest any evidence for free will, therefore it is impossible to be vegan." -mumbles

Honestly, ironically or not ironically, I think it is not cool. It definitely rubs me the wrong way to pick on a prominent Mexican artist and her features on a self portrait. Like " I am making fun of her but it is ironic so it is ok", I disagree. People of color are subject to enough crepe without being the object of someone's ironic makeover.

Also, I can't find the pictures on tumblr so looks like whoever put it up decided to take it down.

_________________You are all a disgrace to vegans. Go f*ck yourselves, especially linanil.

I went to a bonfire once and a woman brought her 14 year old daughter who had apparently insisted on getting a brow wax on the way. I guess I'm behind the times because I couldn't believe it! I went to a nerd high school where nobody even wore makeup.

That said, the topic of pubic hair has occasionally come up among close friends, but it's more along the lines of "do you have a waxist you like in city X?" or like my friend's (hi-LAR-ious, actually) story of the time she got a bikini wax from the trainees at the beauty college, and why she doesn't advise anyone do the same.

I also found the hair-related part of the Caitlin Moran book that some of the people in my book club took issue with:

"So yeah. Keep it trimmed, keep it neat, but keep it what it's supposed to be: an old-skool, born to rule, hot, right grown woman's muff."

i am so kind of surprised to hear this. is this pubic deforestation a generational thing? i never even thought of shaving or whatever for most of my adult life. maybe i just never paid attention. i guess in college when i should have been forming my genital habits, i was spending all my time with wild artists, hippies, and engineers, and pubic styles weren't really on any of our radar. ETA: but to actually say something out loud criticizing that? ridonkulous. It's akin to shaming people with bangs or something equally twatty.

Hehehe. Fixed that for you.

_________________"I'd rather have dried catshit! I'd rather have astroturf! I'd rather have an igloo!"~Isa

"But really, anyone willing to dangle their baby in front of a crocodile is A-OK in my book."~SSD

I also found the hair-related part of the Caitlin Moran book that some of the people in my book club took issue with:

"So yeah. Keep it trimmed, keep it neat, but keep it what it's supposed to be: an old-skool, born to rule, hot, right grown woman's muff."

Was the issue that she suggests keeping it trimmed or that she's pro-bush? Is it the prescriptivist nature generally?

I got the impression that people objected to the "keep it trimmed…neat" bit mostly (it is, after all, a feminist book club!), though personally I read it the opposite way in context of the whole chapter. In any case, however ironic or glib she's trying to come off, it did seem like a strangely prescriptivist rant against pubic hair prescriptivism.

i am so kind of surprised to hear this. is this pubic deforestation a generational thing? i never even thought of shaving or whatever for most of my adult life. maybe i just never paid attention. i guess in college when i should have been forming my genital habits, i was spending all my time with wild artists, hippies, and engineers, and pubic styles weren't really on any of our radar. ETA: but to actually say something out loud criticizing that? ridonkulous. It's akin to shaming people with bangs or something equally twatty.